Josh Peck cracks IU Auditorium up during visit to Bloomington

Josh Peck talks to the audience during "An Evening with Josh Peck" on March 3 in the IU Auditorium. Peck, a former child actor now YouTube and online personality, talked about his life growing up in the spotlight and shared stories about becoming a recent father.
Matt BegalaBuy Photos

As the snow fell Sunday afternoon, two lines wrapped around the Fine Arts Plaza full of fans waiting to fill the IU Auditorium for “An Evening with Josh Peck.”

The event was presented by the Indiana Memorial Union Board. Josh Peck is best known for his role as Josh Nichols in Nickelodeon’s sitcom “Drake & Josh.” Peck is now a YouTube star with over 2.7 million subscribers watching his vlogs.

IU freshmen Kiara Thomas-Powell, Brianna Salazar and Anna Glasgow arrived at 4:15 p.m. for the 6:30 p.m. show to secure their spot at the front of the line. The students had to withstand 27-degree temperatures that felt like 17 degrees for over an hour.

But the women said the cold was worth getting a front row spot to see Peck. Glasgow said she even set an alarm for five minutes before tickets went on sale and texted her friends to remind them as well. Tickets for the event ended up selling out in 24 hours.

“This is like my childhood dream,” Glasgow said.

Once the auditorium doors opened, people rushed in. Fans were seated in a general assembly fashion, starting at the front until all of the 3,200 seats were filled.

When Peck walked out onto the stage, the auditorium erupted into cheers. The talk was facilitated by Olivia Owens and Ethan Schwartz, the Union Board’s co-directors of lectures. But before they could ask Peck the first question, he first had a question for the audience.

“What’s a Hoosier?” Peck asked.

His question was met with an abundance of cheers and laughter. Peck went on to answer it himself by saying he was told it was maybe a metaphor and a term for a resident of Indiana.

They both alternated asking Peck a number of questions about his career and family. He would often answer by launching into a stand up bit about the question.

“People always ask me how I got into comedy and I always say, well, I was chubby,” Peck said. “You couldn’t be the sad, chubby 8 year old.”

He spoke about his proposal to Paige O’Brien, his relationship with his mother and the birth of his infant son, Max. Peck also talked about his transition from television to YouTube.

“My career has taken all of these twists and turns and inevitably I still get to do what I love, which is entertaining people,” Peck said.

Peck even showcased his knowledge of IU culture by cracking jokes about Kelley students, McNutt’s mold problem and the men’s basketball team.

After the facilitated discussion, they opened up the floor to the audience in a Q&A session. Fans frantically hopped out of their seats and rushed to get in line at one of the two microphones.

Several audience members got the chance to ask Peck a question. One fan asked him what his favorite Vine was, to which he responded he enjoys the Vine popularly known by the line “and they were roommates."

Another fan even asked Peck if he regretted not inviting his former co-stars Drake Bell and Miranda Cosgrove to his wedding.

“Nope,” Peck said. “I didn’t even invite some of my cousins.”

One audience member asked which celebrity he would like to work in the future. This caused the audience to burst out into screams of “Oprah,” which is a reference to his “Drake & Josh” character’s love of the legendary talk show host.